Aviation Elite Units - Böcker

The Jagdgeschwader 400 group was formed for the sole purpose of flying one of the world's most revolutionary aircraft, the rocket-powered Me 163. Although the Me 163 scored relatively few kills, with a success rate much lower than the Me 262, it still had a massive psychological impact upon the Allies, and the technology and experiences gained in the Me 163 went on to influence the jet fighters of modern times. The introduction of jet-powered aircraft demanded massive changes in training, equipment, servicing and tactics, all of which are described and examined in this essential analysis of the story of the Me 163 in frontline service with Erprobungskommando 16 and Jagdgeschwader 400.

Tracing its roots to Manfred, Freiherr von Richthofen and his famous "Flying Circus" of World War I, the Jagdgeschwader "Richthofen" is arguably the most famous fighter unit of all time. Designated JG 1 during World War I, and then disbanded following Germany's defeat, the Jagdgeschwader reformed as the JG 132 in 1935 with Arado and Heinkel biplanes. By September 1939 the unit had become JG 2, and it went on to see much action during the Blitzkrieg in Western Europe and the Battle of Britain which followed. This volume, the first in a series which focuses on the elite fighter and bomber units in action, charts the wartime career of JG 2 from its first aerial kills on the Franco-German border in November 1939 through to the destruction of its own Fw 190s in the face of Allied advance at Prague-Ruzyne airfield in late April 1945.

One of the first Thunderbolt groups to see action in the European Theatre of Operations (ETO) with the US Army Air Forces, the 56th Fighter Group was the only unit within the Eighth Air Force to remain equipped with the mighty P-47 until the War's end. This group was responsible for devising many of the bomber escort tactics employed by VIII Fighter Command between 1943 and 1945. By the War's end the 56th Fighter Group had shot down more enemy aircraft than any other group in the Eighth Air Force, its pilots being credited with 674.5 kills during 447 missions. The group also produced the ETO's two leading aces, Francis Gabreski and Robert Johnson. The exploits of these men, and numerous others, are featured in this volume, which is the second in a series focusing on the elite fighter and bomber units in action.

From its humble beginnings as a reconnaissance flight, using second-hand aircraft at the very end of the Battle of Britain. No 91 'Nigeria' Squadron went on to become one of the most famous units in Raf Fighter Command. It achieved outstanding results using new low-level interception tactics along the south coast of England. employing the very latest marks of Spitfire. indeed, it was one of the few fighter units to be Spitfire-equipped throughout World War 2. Manned by a multifarious band of pilots from across the globe, No 91 'Nigeria' Sqn also produced its fair share of aces.

'B-29!' No other term struck such terror in the hearts of the Japanese public during World War 2 than this single, most-hated name. It was then only natural that the pilots who attempted to shoot these high-flying Boeing bombers out of the skies over Tokyo, Nagasaki, Hiroshima and Kobe should become known as the elite of the Japanese Army Air Force. This book details the exploits of the 'Dragon Slayers' who, flying the very latest single- and twin-engined fighters, exacted a heavy toll on the AAF Boeing bombers, using a range of tactics including ramming.

Finland's premier fighter squadron during World War 2, Lentolaivue 24 (Flying Squadron 24) first saw action during the bloody Winter War of 1939-40, when the Soviet Red Army launched a surprise attack on the small Scandinavian country - the squadron enjoyed great success against numerically superior opposition. LLv 24 was once again in the thick of the action following the outbreak of the Continuation War in June 1941. Easily the air force's most successful fighter unit, LLv 24 claimed 877 kills, and its pilots won five direct and two indirect Mannerheim Crosses (Finland's highest military award) out of a total of 19 presented to all Finnish soldiers. Most top aces also scored the bulk of their kills flying with this unit.

One of the most successful of the high-scoring Luftwaffe Jagdgeschwader during World War II, JG 54 "Grunherz" ("Green Hearts") was formed from three disparate fighter "Gruppen" immediately prior to the Battle of Britain. Having enjoyed immediate success over the Channel and south-east England during the summer of 1940, the unit was transferred to the Eastern Front in the spring of 1941 in preparation for Operation Barbarossa - the German invasion of the Soviet Union. JG 54 remained a Jagdwaffe stalwart in the east, flying firstly Bf 109Fs and then the Fw 190. By the war's end, the Geschwader's pilots had claimed over 9500 kills, and produced over 100 aces. Men like Hans Philipp, Walter Nowotny and Otto Kittel are profiled in this volume, which reveals the struggle in the face of overwhelming odds that was the lot of the Jagdflieger on the Eastern Front.

Aviation Elite 7 charts the career of the 354th FG or 'Pioneer Mustang Group', the group responsible for debuting the Merlin-engined P-51B in the European Theatre of Operations (ETO) in December 1943. Its arrival in England in the autumn of that year saw the group become the first fighter outfit to be assigned to the newly created tactical Ninth Air Force. Due to the Mustang's outstanding range, it was quickly seen as being the ideal bomber escort for the Eighth Air Force's long range heavy bombers, which were suffering terrible losses on daylight raids deep into Germany. The 354th FG was to subsequently spend the first seven months of its time in the ETO protecting Eighth AF bombers, and many pilots became aces during this period.

Nicknamed the 'Bluenosed Bastards of Bodney' due to the garish all-blue noses of their P-51s and their wartime base in Norfolk the 352nd was one of the most successful fighter groups in the Eighth Air Force. Initially equipped with P-47s, the group transitioned to P-51s just prior to D-Day, and it was with the Mustang that its pilots enjoyed the greatest success. Indeed, the ranking P-51 ace in the ETO was a 352nd FG pilot, Maj George Preddy who claimed 26.83 kills with the fighter. Not far behind him in terms of kills was 24-victory ace John Meyer, and the exploits of the remaining 28 aces are also detailed. This book also discusses the various markings worn by the group's three squadrons, the 328th, 486th and 487th FSs.

Known as the "Fighting Cocks", No 43 Squadron has been a part of the RAF since 1916, and is still in service today. This volume deals exclusively with the unit's exploits during World War II, covering its service during the evacuation of Dunkirk and the Battle of Britain, as well as the years spent supporting the Allied cause in North Africa and the Mediterranean. Flying Hurricanes from November 1939, and re-equipped with Spitfires in early 1943, Fighting Cocks' pilots scored 159 kills during the war and over a dozen of them "made ace". This book presents a full picture of the squadron, its men and its aircraft.

The 359th Fighter Group first saw action on 13 December 1943, it initially flew bomber escort sweeps in P47s, before converting to th P-51 in April 1944. The 359th was credited with the destruction of 351 enemy aircraft between December 1943 and May 1945. The exploits of all 12 aces created by the group are detailed, along with the most significant missions flown.

The first title in the Elite Units series to deal with an American bombardment group, this title focuses on the 303rd BG, dubbed the 'Hells Angels.' One of the very first B-17 units assigned to the newly created Eighth Air Force in England in September 1942, the 303rd was in the vanguard of the daylight bombing campaign through to VE-Day. Awarded a Distinguished Unit Citation in January 1944, the 303rd also had two of its aircrewmen presented with the Medal of Honor, Americas ultimate military decoration. Brian O Neill brings the group's colourful combat history to life with a mix of first-hand accounts, raw statistics and concise mission narrative.

Synonymous with the Afrika Korps and the campaign in North Africa, JG 27 provided Rommel's army with fighter protection for virtually the whole 'roller coaster ride that was the war in the Western Desert from 1941-43. Formed in Germany on 1 October 1939 (with Adolf Galland as CO of I.Gruppe), JG 27 saw considerable action both during the Battles of France and Britain, downing 146 aircraft in the latter campaign alone. Sent to North Africa in April 1941, the geschwader had an immediate impact on the campaign, which had up until then been dominated by the Allies. The third volume in the Aviation Elite series on a German fighter geschwader, this book will once again prove popular with Luftwaffe enthusiasts and hobbyists alike.

One of the most important, and yet least publiscised, components of the front-line Luftwaffe was the Schlacht, or ground attack, arm. This book details the Schlacht units who were in the thick of the fighting from the first day of the war until the last. They played a vital part in the heady successes of the early Blitzkrieg campaigns and went on to perform an equally essential role in the dark hours of last ditch defence and ultimate defeat. In between, they fought in all defensive battles: on the eastern front at Stalingrad, Kursk and Berlin; in the west, by night, over Normandy, the Ardennes and the Rhine.

Undoubtedly the most famous of any nation's aviation units in World War I was the legendary Jagdgeschwader Nr I, or 'The Flying Circus' as its respectful foes labelled it. Germany's first true fighter wing, it would always be associated with its first commander, the charismatic and revered Manfred von Richthofen. JG I was formed in July 1917, and for sixteen months the unit's young pilots in their colourful aircraft battled for aerial dominance of the Western Front. From its ranks emerged many of Germany's most successful airmen, including the Red Baron's brother Lothar; Ernst Udet; Werner Voss; Erich Lowenhardt and Hermann Goring. This book charts the World War I experiences of JG I.

After struggling with inadequate supplies of aircraft and materiel, the veteran pilots of the Geschwader would go on to enjoy incredible successes against French and American opponents in September 1918. Aces who flew the famous blue-fuselaged Fokkers of JG II included such stalwarts as Josef Veltjens (35 kills), Georg von Hantelmann (25 kills), Franz Buchner (40 kills) and Ulrich Neckel (30 kills). This volume contains many first-hand accounts by these and other notable aces, which reveal the esprit de corps and camaraderie these airmen displayed in their struggles against superior numbers up to the war's final grim days.

This book traces the combat history of the most famous and highest-scoring fighter group in France's World War I Aviation Militaire. Groupe de Combat 12 boasted the highest-scoring Allied fighter pilot, Rene Fonck, and France's most celebrated hero of the air, Georges Guynemer. Its ranks included numerous other famous aces, such as Rene's Dorme, Alfred Heurteaux, Albert Deullin, and American volunteers Edwin Parsons and Frank L. Baylies. Additionally, Guynemer was instrumental in developing France's premier series of fighter planes, the SPAD VII, XII, XIII and XVII.

The 49th FG was sent to Australia in early 1942 to help stem the tide of Japanese conquest in Java. Too late to save the island, the group went into action in the defence of Darwin, Australia, where the Forty-Niners' handful of P-40E Warhawks were thrown into combat alongside survivors from the defeated forces that had fled from the Philippines and Java. This book assesses the outstanding performance of the 49th FG, pitted against superior Japanese forces. By VJ-Day the group had scored 668 aerial victories and won three Distinguished Unit Citations and ten campaign stars for its outstanding efforts.

Jagdgeschwader 52 (JG 52) was the most successful and highest-scoring fighter unit, not just in Germany's World War 2 Luftwaffe, but in the entire annals of aviation history. No other fighter group has ever come close to matching its staggering total of around 9000 enemy aircraft shot down in combat. And yet, because much of that combat took place over the tractless wastes of the Russian front, very little has been written in English about the exploits of this charismatic unit. This book provides a full combat history of JG 52 and its members, including the three top-scoring aces of all time, who claimed a total of 900 victories between them.

By the spring of 1944, hundreds of American heavy bombers were venturing deep into occupied Europe, escorted by ever increasing numbers of Mustangs, Thunderbolts and Lightnings. In a desperate attempt to deal a single knock-out blow to the Allied daylight bomber offensive, an outstanding band of Luftwaffe fighter pilots volunteered to be organised into elite bomber destroyer units known as Sturmgruppen, or 'assault wings'. Pilots in these units were trained to engage the enemy in close-quarter combat. Through first-hand accounts and rare archival photography, this book chronicles the brief but violent career of the Sturmgruppen during the dark days of 1944.

The pilots called themselves the Tokyo Club. It was a simple task to become a member. All you had to do was strap yourself into a heavily loaded P-51 Mustang, take off from Iwo Jima, fly 650 miles north over the sea often through monsoon storms in your single-engined aircraft to Japan, attack a heavily defended target and then turn around and fly home despite a shrinking fuel supply and perhaps battle damage as well. Do it once and you earned membership in the club. Do it 15 times and you earned a trip home. But make one mistake or have one touch of bad luck, and you had a very good chance of ending up dead. This book will tell the little-known story of these brave men and their efforts to defeat the aerial forces defending Japan.

Formed with the best available fighter pilots in the Southwest Pacific, the 475th Fighter Group was the pet project of Fifth Air Force chief, General George C Kenney. From the time the group entered combat in August 1943 until the end of the war it was the fastest scoring group in the Pacific and remained one of the crack fighter units in the entire US Army Air Forces with a final total of some 550 credited aerial victories. Amongst its pilots were the leading American aces of all time, Dick Bong and Tom McGuire, with high-scoring pilots Danny Roberts and John Loisel also serving with the 475th. This book details these pilots, the planes they flew and the campaigns and battles they fought in including such famous names as Dobodura, the Huon Gulf, Oro Bay, Rabaul, Hollandia, the Philippines and Luzon.

The USAAF's Tuskegee Experiment, designed to prove that African-Americans were not capable of flying combat aircraft, ironically resulted in the creation of one of the USAAF's elite units. Crewed by highly-educated and exceptionally motivated men, the 332nd were able to boast 111 aerial kills, 150 strafing victories and even the sinking of a German destroyer by the war's end. The group were both feared and respected by the Germans, who called them the 'Schwartze Voglemenschen' (Black Birdmen), and revered by others as the 'Black Red-tail Angels', partly because of their distinct red-tailed aircraft, and partly because they never lost a bomber under escort to enemy attack. This book will reveal the true story of the unit who rose above discrimination to achieve elite status.

JG 51 is another of the Luftwaffe's top wartime fighter units whose story has never been told in English. The unit's history encapsulates the fortunes of the Luftwaffe's fighter arm as a whole - the heady successes of the early months, the steady attrition and the growing strength of the opposition during the mid-war years, and the final chaos and collapse of the last days. The story works on other levels too. But it is perhaps the details of the pilots who served with the unit that sets JG 51 apart. During the course of the war it numbered more Knight's Cross winners among its ranks than any other. And it is their stories - their successes, exploits and eventual fates - which brings this history to life.

By August 1916, the German Air Service was fighting a losing struggle in the skies over the Battle of the Somme. In response, an entirely new type of fighting formation came into being -the Jagdstaffel, a unit designed solely as a fighting squadron. One of the most famous was Jasta 2, formed and led by Germany's premiere fighter ace Oswald Boelcke. Renamed Jasta 'Boelcke', the unit would carry its first commander's legacy to spectacular success in late 1918. This title examines the tactics, personalities and achievements of this ace squadron which finished the war with an immense 336 victories, second only to Richthofen's own unit in confirmed kills.

Arguably the archetypal Luftwaffe fighter unit of World War 2, JG 53 aircraft were encountered on almost every fighting front from the first day of hostilities until the last. During almost six years of near-constant campaigning, JG 53 took a steady toll of Allied aircraft in every theatre it fought over. The variety of camouflage finishes worn by its machines -winter white, desert dapple and Reich's defence black - and the progression of variants are reflected in an eye-opening colour section. John Weal has spent several years researching in German archives and this, together with his personal contact with several veterans, results in an authoritative and human account of JG 53's long and eventful war.

This book provides up-to-date insight into the notorious German unit, JV 44, its numerous aces and its stunning success with the revolutionary Me 262 during the last dramatic months of World War 2.There was no Luftwaffe fighter unit like Jagdverband 44. Formed in February 1945, the unit grew out of Hitler's bizarre decision that the Me 262 jet fighter should be used as a bomber, despite its potential in the daylight defensive battles over the Reich. Seen as a grave mistake by Göring, a small fighter unit was formed in southern Germany to 'prove' the Me 262's ability as an interceptor. Formed with some of Germany's most experienced fighter pilots, Jagdverband 44 numbered a disproportionately high number of leading aces in its ranks, to the extent that it was said that the Knights' Cross was the unofficial badge of the unit.With numerous first-hand accounts from pilots and detailed colour profiles, this book is a fascinating account of the dramatic birth of the jet fighter and the impact it had during the bitter struggles of 1944-45.

When the revolutionary Messerschmitt Me 262 jet fighter first appeared in the skies over northwest Europe in mid-1944, it represented one of the greatest challenges to Allied air superiority. The first group to solely fly jet fighters, Jagdgeschwader 7 was tasked with wrestling back command of the skies. Put almost immediately into action, despite fuel shortages, poor training and problems with the jet engine, victories quickly followed against both US and British aircraft. By the end of the war, the Jagdgeschwader had claimed nearly 200 enemy aircraft destroyed in daylight bomber raids during 1945. This book follows the history of the JG 7 unit, examining how their courage, determination and the most advanced aircraft in the world were simply not enough to ensure victory. In the final section of the book, Robert Forsyth details how JG 7 were eventually defeated by gradual losses, restricted operating conditions, lack of fuel and overwhelming Allied fighter strength.

Formed around a nucleus of pilots already seasoned by their experience as volunteers in the RAF's Eagle Squadrons, the 4th Fighter Group was established in England in October 1942. Initially flying Spitfires, the Debden Eagles went on to fly the P-47 and P-51, becoming, in July 1943, the first Eighth Air Force fighter group to penetrate German air space. The group's record of 583 air and 469 ground victories was unmatched in the Eighth Air Force, and the group produced a cast of characters that included legendary aces Don Blakeslee, Pierce McKennon, Kid Hofer, Duane Beeson, Steve Pisanos and Howard Hively. Involved in the D-Day landings, Operation Market Garden, the Battle of the Bulge and the crossing of the Rhine, the group's achievements came at a high price, with a 42 percent casualty rate. Packed with first-hand accounts, detailed aircraft profiles and full combat histories, this book is an intriguing insight into the best-known American fighter unit in World War II.